OAKLAND, Calif. — Sebastian Telfair scored 21 points, including a pair of key 3-pointers down the stretch, and Kevin Love added 20 points and 12 rebounds as the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Golden State Warriors 105-97 on Wednesday.
Craig Smith had 14 points for Minnesota, which had six players score in double figures.
Love, who didn’t play in Sunday’s game against Denver due to the flu, sat out the entire fourth quarter but still finished with his 18th double-doubles in the last 32 games. The fifth overall pick in the 2008 draft, has 28 double-doubles on the season, tops among all NBA rookies.
Love also moved within two rebounds of breaking the Timberwolves’ single-season rookie record, held by Christian Laetner (708).
Jamal Crawford scored 31 points to pace Golden State, which had its three-game winning streak snapped. The Warriors have not won four straight since February 2008.
The Warriors led 61-58 at halftime but scored only 12 points in the third quarter, matching their lowest single-quarter total of the season.
Telfair took over for Minnesota in the fourth quarter. He hit a 19-foot fadeaway jumper early in the quarter then added an 18-footer to make it 94-86 with 6:04 remaining.
After Crawford’s 3-pointer cut the gap to five, Telfair scored on a drive down the lane then followed with consecutive 3’s to push the Timberwolves lead to 102-92 with less than two minutes left.
Minnesota has won three of its last four and four of six. The Timberwolves also avenged a 24-point loss at home to the Warriors on March 3.
Andris Biedrins had nine points and six rebounds in his return to Golden State’s lineup for the first time since suffering a sprained left ankle against Dallas on March 13. The Warriors were 5-7 without their leading rebounder.
Golden State, which had won two of the previous three meetings between the teams, led most of the first quarter but fell behind early in the second when Smith’s layup gave Minnesota a 34-31 lead.
The Timberwolves were nursing a one-point lead with 44 seconds remaining in the first half when Crawford made a pair of free throws to put the Warriors in front. Biedrins then took a quick pass from Crawford and scored on a reverse layup with 2.1 seconds left to give Golden State a 61-58 halftime advantage.
The Warriors couldn’t sustain the momentum coming out of the break, fell behind in the third quarter and trailed the rest of the way.
Notes:Minnesota G Randy Foye sat out his sixth straight game due to a sore left hip.
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